husband
Americannoun
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a married man, especially when considered in relation to his partner in marriage.
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British. a manager.
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Archaic. a prudent or frugal manager.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a woman's partner in marriage
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archaic
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a manager of an estate
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a frugal person
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verb
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to manage or use (resources, finances, etc) thriftily
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archaic
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(tr) to find a husband for
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(of a woman) to marry (a man)
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obsolete (tr) to till (the soil)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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husbandsimple
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husbandssimple
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have husbandedperfect
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has husbandedperfect
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am husbandingprogressive
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are husbandingprogressive
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is husbandingprogressive
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have been husbandingperfect progressive
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has been husbandingperfect progressive
Past
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husbandedsimple
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had husbandedperfect
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was husbandingprogressive
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were husbandingprogressive
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had been husbandingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of husband
before 1000; Middle English husband ( e ), Old English hūsbonda master of the house < Old Norse hūsbōndi, equivalent to hūs house + bōndi ( bō-, variant of bū- dwell ( see boor) + -nd present participle suffix + -i inflectional ending)
Explanation
A husband is a married man. Your grandfather might joke that he and your grandmother have been husband and wife for so long because she has the patience of a saint and he is deaf as a post. The word husband comes from the Old Norse hūsbōndi, where hūs meant house and bōndi meant dweller. As a verb, husband means to conserve resources and use them frugally. Because of the flooding in the area, roads are cut off and everyone is being asked to husband their supplies. This conservation of resources sense of husband also occurs in the related noun husbandry.
Vocabulary lists containing husband
The Taming of the Shrew
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Units 2–3
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"The Taming of the Shrew" by William Shakespeare, Induction
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The husband complained that “so many of the amenities that seemed almost a birthright when he was growing up now appear to be out of reach.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Davies said that when his husband was first diagnosed Smith did a "remarkable thing" by deciding not to find out his prospects.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
It was a generous and thoughtful gesture to split your $1 million TSP with your husband and children.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
Her house burned down too, and shortly after, her husband died.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
Her husband, Derek, was a head taller than his wife.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
But over the years, 41 women directly followed their deceased husbands into the lower chamber.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
“I realized a lot of wives were wishing their husbands were there and they weren’t,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
Though strictly a fathers club, the group, Nieves said, has grown thanks to wives and partners sharing his social media posts with their husbands.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
In some clips, women wrap their husbands in angel wings, symbolically shielding them from harm.
From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026
I thought of their husbands, desperately seeking day labor in the city, trying to find any work that they could.
From "How Dare the Sun Rise" by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
From there to the line, she husbanded her lead like someone who had been doing it all her life.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 7, 2018
After his parents divorced, Folkert’s mom did yard work and landscaping and cleaned houses to earn money — which she husbanded with care.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 27, 2018
Tollett has not only husbanded the landscape; he has branded it.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 10, 2017
Others husbanded their deutschemarks like farmers girding against unforeseen misfortune.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2014
Even the wilderness is carefully husbanded there, and though that forest had been logged for centuries there were no waste places in it, no desolations of stumps, no eroded slopes.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
The glimpse reminded voters that Davis, who was husbanding his resources for a late advertising push, was still in the race.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2026
He lacks a strategy for husbanding his domestic political capital, without which he will be remembered mainly as an interruption.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
Allies allow you to project power while husbanding your own resources.
From Salon ● Mar. 5, 2025
"The greater risk environment for financials leads to husbanding of capital and risk-taking, less and more conservative investing and lending, and inevitably, lower growth," said Blankfein, who also served as Goldman's chairman, told Reuters.
From Reuters ● Mar. 20, 2023
Aragorn let them drift with the stream as they wished, husbanding their strength against weariness to come.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
